00.5. DEDICATION
DEDICATION To my brethren, and dearly-beloved brothers, the faithful ministers of Christ, in Britain and Ireland, Grace and Peace in Jesus Christ be increased.
Reverend Brothers, the subject of this treatise so nearly concerns yourselves, and the churches committed to your care, that it emboldens me to this address, notwithstanding the imperfections in the manner of handling it, and the consciousness of my great unworthiness to be your monitor.
Before I come to my principal errand, I will give you an account of the reasons for the following work, and of the freedom of speech I have used, which may be displeasing to some. The Lord awakened his ministers in the county of Worcestershire, and some neighboring parts, to a sense of their duty in the work of catechizing, and of the private instruction of everyone in their parishes who would not obstinately refuse their help. When they had subscribed to an agreement containing their resolutions for its future performance, they judged it unfitting to enter upon that work without a solemn humbling of their souls before the Lord, for their long neglect of so great and necessary a duty. And therefore they agreed to meet together at Worcester, December 4, 1655, and there to join in humiliation and in earnest prayer to God to pardon our neglects; and to pray for his special assistance in the work which we had undertaken, and for its success with the people whom we had engaged to instruct. At that time, they desired that I, among others, would preach. In compliance with their wishes, I prepared the following Discourse.
Though it proved longer than could be delivered in one or two sermons, I intended to enter upon it at that time, and to deliver what was most pertinent to the occasion, and to reserve the rest for another season. But, before the meeting, by the increase of my ordinary pain and weakness, I was disabled from going there. To recompense that unwilling omission, I easily yielded to the request of various brothers, to quickly publish the things which I had prepared, so that they might read what they could not hear. It might be objected that I should not have spoken so plainly and sharply against the sins of the ministry; or that I should not have published it to the view of the world; or, at least, I should not have done it in the common tongue but in another language; or, especially, that I should not have done it when Quakers and Papists are endeavoring to bring the ministry into contempt, and the people are too prone to listen to their suggestions – I confess that I thought these objection were considerable; but they did not prevail to alter my resolution. And that is to be ascribed, among other reasons, to the following:
1. We agreed upon and we proposed a solemn humiliation, and this was prepared and intended for that. And how should we be humbled without a plain confession of our sin?
2. It was principally our own sins that the confession concerned; and who can be offended by us for confessing our own sins, and taking the blame and shame to ourselves, which our consciences told us we ought to do?
3. Having necessarily prepared it in English, I had no spare time to translate it into Latin.
4. When the sin is open in the sight of the world, it is vain to attempt to hide it; all such attempts will only aggravate and increase our shame.
5. A free confession is a condition of a full remission; and when the sin is public, the confession should also be public.
If the ministers of England had sinned only in Latin, I would have shifted to admonish them in Latin, or else I would have said nothing to them. But if they sin in English, they must hear of it in English. Unpardoned sin will never let us rest or prosper, though we take ever so much care and cost to cover it: our sin will surely find us out, though we do not find it out. The work of confession is purposely to make known our sin, and freely take the shame to ourselves; and if “he that confesses and forsakes his sins will have mercy,” it is no wonder that “he who covers them will not prosper.”18 If we are so tender of ourselves, and so loath to confess, God will be the less tender of us, and will dictate our confessions for us. He will either force our consciences to confess, or his judgments will proclaim our iniquities to the world.
6. Too many who have undertaken the work of the ministry have so obstinately proceeded in self-seeking, negligence, pride, and other sins, that it has become our necessary duty to admonish them. If we saw that such men would reform without reproof, we would gladly forbear publishing their faults. But when reproofs themselves prove so ineffectual, so that they are more offended at the reproof than at the sin, and would rather that we cease reproving them than cease sinning themselves, I think it is time to sharpen the remedy. For what else should we do? To give up our brothers as incurable would be cruelty, as long as there are further means to be used.
We must not hate them, but plainly rebuke them, and not permit sin to continue upon them. To bear with the vices of the ministry is to promote the ruin of the Church; for what speedier way is there towards the depravity and undoing of the people of God, than to permit the depravity of their guides? And how can we more effectually further a reformation of the Church, than by endeavoring to reform the leaders of the Church? For my part, I have done as I would have done to me; and it is for the safety of the Church, and in tender love to the brothers, whom I venture to reprehend – not to make them contemptible and odious, but to heal the evils that would make them so – and to do this so no enemy may find this matter of reproach among us. But, especially, because our faithful endeavors are so greatly necessary to the welfare of the Church, and saving men’s souls; to be negligent ourselves, or to silently ignore negligence in others would not be consistent with love toward either.
If thousands of you were in a leaking ship, and those who should pump out the water, and stop the leaks, were at play or asleep, or merely favoring themselves in their labors, to the hazard of you all, would you not awaken them to their work, and call on them to labor so as to save your lives? And if you used some sharpness and importunity with the slothful, would you think someone had his wits who would take offense at you, and accuse you of pride, self-conceit, or bad manners, to presume to talk so saucily to your fellow-workmen, or who would tell you that you wrong the slothful by diminishing their reputation? Would you not say, “The work must be done, or we are all dead men. The ship is ready to sink, and you talk of reputation? Or would you rather place yourself and us in hazard, than hear of your slothfulness?” This is our case, brothers. The work of God must be done! Souls must not perish while you mind your worldly business or worldly pleasure, and take your ease, or quarrel with your brothers! Nor may we be silent while men are hastened to perdition by you, and while the Church is brought into greater danger and confusion, out of the fear of seeming too uncivil and unmannerly with you, or displeasing your impatient souls! If you would only be as impatient with your sins as you are with our reproofs, you would hear no more from us; we would all be agreed! But, neither God nor good men will let you alone in such sins. Yet if you had undertaken another calling, and sinned only to yourselves, and perished alone, we would not have so much need to molest you as now we have: but you have entered into the office of the ministry, which is for the necessary preservation of us all. By letting you alone in your sin, we must give up the Church to loss and hazard. So do not blame us if we talk to you more freely than you would have us do. If your own body were sick, and you despised the remedy, or if your own house were on fire, and you were singing or quarrelling in the streets, I could possibly bear it and let you alone, (yet, in charity, I could not easily do that). But, if you undertake to be the physician of a hospital, or to a whole town infected with the plague, or you undertake to quench all the fires that are kindled in the town, there is no bearing with your remissness, however much it may displease you. Take it how you will, you must be told of it; and if that does not work, you must be told of it more plainly; and, if that will not work, and you feel rejected as well as reprehended, then you may thank yourselves. I speak all this to none but the guilty.
And, thus, I have given you those reasons which forced me to publish, in plain English, so much of the sins of the ministry as I have in the following Treatise. And I suppose the more penitent and humble someone is, and the more he desires the true reformation of the Church, the more easily and fully he will approve such free confessions and reprehensions. But I find it impossible to avoid offending those who are at once guilty and impenitent; for there is no way to avoid this except by our silence or their patience: and we cannot be silent because of God’s commands; and they will not be patient because of their guilt and impenitence. But plain dealers19 will always be approved in the end; and the time is at hand when you will confess that plain dealers were your best friends. But my principal business is yet to come. I must now take the boldness, brothers, to become your monitor, concerning some of the necessary duties of which I speak in the ensuing discourse. If any of you would charge me with arrogance or immodesty for this attempt, as if I accused you by this of negligence, or judged myself sufficient to admonish you, I crave your candid interpretation of my boldness. I assure you that I do not obey the counsel of my flesh in this, but I displease myself as much as some of you; and I would rather have the ease and peace of silence, if it were compatible with my duty and the churches’ good. But the mere necessity of the souls of men, and my desire for their salvation, and for the prosperity of the Church, force me to this arrogance and immodesty, if it must be called that. For who with a tongue can be silent when it is for the honor of God, the welfare of his Church, and the everlasting happiness of so many souls? The first and main point which I have to propound to you is this: Is it not the unquestionable duty of most ministers of these three nations, to presently set themselves to the work of catechizing, and instructing individually, all who are committed to their care, those who will be persuaded to submit to it? I do not need to prove it, having sufficiently done this in the following discourse. Can you think that holy wisdom will deny it? Will zeal for God; will delight in his service, or love for the souls of men, deny it?
1. It is past doubt among us that people must be taught the principles of religion, and matters of greatest necessity to salvation.
2. I hope we are agreed that they must be taught it in the most edifying, advantageous way.
3. It is no less beyond dispute that personal conference with them, and examination, and instruction, has many excellent advantages for their good.
4. So far as I can find, it is without contradiction that personal instruction is recommended to us by Scripture, and by the practice of the servants of Christ, and it is approved by the godly of all ages.
5. It is past doubt, that we should perform this great duty to all the people, or as many as we can; for our love and care of their souls must extend to all. If there are five hundred or a thousand ignorant people in your parish or congregation, it is a poor discharge of your duty to now and then speak to a few of them, and to leave the rest alone in their ignorance, assuming you are able to afford them help.
6. It is no less certain, that so great a work as this is should take up a considerable part of our time.
7. Lastly, it is equally certain that all duties should be done in an orderly way, as far as possible, and therefore they should have their appointed times. And if we are agreed to practice according to these commonly acknowledged truths, then we need not differ about any doubtful circumstances.
Catechizing and Instruction
Now, on behalf of Christ, and for the sake of his Church, and the immortal souls of men, I beg all the faithful ministers of Christ, to presently and effectually fall upon this work. Combine to unanimously perform it, so that it may more easily procure the submission of your people. I must confess that I find, by some experience, that, through the grace of God which works by means, this is the work that must reform in fact; that must expel our common prevailing ignorance; that must bow the stubborn hearts of sinners; that must answer their empty objections and remove their prejudices; that must reconcile their hearts to faithful ministers and help in the success of our public preaching; and that makes true godliness a more common thing than it has been up to now. I find that we never took the best course for demolishing the kingdom of darkness, until now. I wonder at myself, how I was kept from so clear and excellent a duty for so long. But the case was the same with me as I suppose it is with others: I was long convinced of the need, but my apprehensions concerning the difficulties were too great, and my apprehensions concerning my duty were too small; and so I was long hindered from performing it. I imagined the people would scorn it, and only a few, who had the least need of it, would submit to it. And I thought my strength would never go through with it, having had such great burdens on me before; and thus I delayed it for a long time, which I beg the Lord of mercy to forgive. And yet, upon trying it, I find that the difficulties are almost nothing (except for my unusual bodily weakness) compared to what I imagined; and I find the benefits and comforts of the work to be such, that I wish I had not forborne it for all the riches in the world.
We spend Monday and Tuesday, from morning almost to night, in the work, taking about fifteen or sixteen families in a week, so that we may go through the parish in a year, in which there are upwards of eight hundred families. And I cannot say yet that one family has refused to come to me, and only a few persons excused themselves and put it off. And I find more outward signs of success with most of those who do come, than from all my public preaching to them. If you say it is not so in most places, then I hope the blame does not lie so much with ourselves. If, however, some refuse your help, that does not excuse you for not affording it to those who would accept it. If you ask me what course I take for order and expedition, I may here mention that, when I deliver the Catechisms, I take a catalogue of all the persons of understanding in the parish; the clerk goes to every family, a week before, to tell them what day to come, and at what hour, (one family at eight o’clock, the next at nine, and the next at ten, etc.). And I am forced by the number to deal with a whole family at once; but ordinarily I do not allow another family to be present.
Brothers, would I now invite you to this work without the authority of God, without the consent of all antiquity, without the consent of the Reformed Divines, or without the conviction of your own consciences? See what the Westminster Assembly said to this purpose in the Directory20, about the visitation of the sick:
“It is the duty of the minister not only to teach the people committed to his charge in public, but privately; and particularly to admonish, exhort, reprove, and comfort them upon all seasonable occasions, so far as his time, strength, and personal safety will permit. He is to admonish them in time of health to prepare for death. And for that purpose, they are often to confer with their minister about the estate of their souls,” etc.
Read this over again, and consider it. Listen to21 God, if you would have peace with God. Listen to your conscience, if you would have peace of conscience. I am resolved to deal plainly with you, even though I may displease you. It is unlikely that there would be someone whose heart is sincerely devoted to God, who, after notices and exhortations, would not be resolved on so clear and great a duty. I cannot conceive of someone with one spark of saving grace, and thus has that love toward God and delight to do his will which is found in all those who are sanctified, who could possibly be drawn to oppose or refuse such a work as this. It would require the power of a temptation such as Peter had when he denied Christ, or when he tried to dissuade Christ from suffering, and heard a half excommunication: “Get behind me, Satan; you are an offense to me: for you do not savor the things that are of God, but those that are of men.”22 You have put your hand to the plow23; you are doubly devoted to him, as Christians and as pastors; and do you dare, after this, to draw back and refuse his work? You see the work of reformation at a standstill; and you are engaged24 by many obligations to promote it: and do you now dare to neglect the means by which it must be done? Will you show your faces in a Christian congregation, as ministers of the gospel, and there pray for a reformation, and for the conversion and salvation of your hearers, and for the prosperity of the Church; and when you have done all this, do you then refuse to use the means by which all this must be effected? I know carnal wit will never lack the words, and appearance of reason, to deny the truth and duty which it abhors. It is easier now to quibble against duty than to perform it: but wait for the end before you pass your final judgment. Can you make yourselves believe that you will have a comfortable review of such neglects, or make a comfortable account of them to God? I dare prognosticate, from the knowledge of the nature of grace, that all the godly ministers in England will be conscientious to this duty, and address themselves to it, except those who, by some extraordinary accident, are disabled, or who are under such temptations as I mentioned above. I do not persuade you to this without hope, but I take it for granted that it will be done. And if any lazy, jealous, or malicious hypocrites quibble against it, or hold off from doing it, the rest will not do so; they will take the opportunity and not resist the warnings of the Lord. And God will uncase the hypocrites before long, and make them know to their sorrow what it means to trifle with him. Woe to them when they must account for the blood of souls!25 The reasons which satisfied them here against their duty, will not then satisfy them against that duty; rather, those reasons will be shown to be the effect of their folly, and proceeded radically from their corrupted wills and carnal interest. Nor will their consciences accept those same reasons at their dying hour which they seem to accept now. They will feel to their sorrow that no comfort is to be had for their departing soul, upon reviewing such neglected duty, as there is for those who have wholly devoted themselves to the service of the Lord. I am sure my arguments for this duty will appear strongest at the last, when viewed at the hour of death, at the Day of Judgment, and especially in the light of eternity. And now, brothers, I earnestly beg you, in the name of God, and for the sake of your people’s souls, that you will not do this work lazily, but vigorously, and with all your might; and make it your great and serious business. Much judgment is required to manage it. Therefore, study beforehand how to do it, just as you study for your sermons. I remember how earnest I was with some of the last parliament, that they would place catechists in our assemblies;26 but truly I am not sorry that it had no effect, except for a few of the larger congregations. For I perceive that all the life of the work, under God, lies in its prudent and effectual management, in searching men’s hearts, and driving home the truth to their consciences. The ablest minister is still weak for this task, and few inferior officers would be found competent for it at all. I fear nothing more than that many ministers who preach well, will yet be found imperfectly qualified for this work, especially to manage it with old, ignorant, and dead-hearted sinners. Indeed, if the ministers are not revered by the people, they will be slighted by them, and contest with them, rather than humbly learn and submit to them: how much more would they do so if instructed by inferior men? Seeing, then, that the work has been cast upon us, and it is we who must do it or else it will be left undone, let us be up and doing it with all our might. When you are speaking to your people, do it with the greatest prudence and seriousness, and be as earnest with them as you would for life or death; follow it as closely as you do your public exhortations in the pulpit. I profess again that, to me, it is the most agreeable work that I ever set my hand to, apart from public preaching; for there, though I speak to more people, it is less advantageous for each individual. And I do not doubt that you will find it so too, if you will only perform it faithfully.
Church Discipline My second request to the ministers in these kingdoms is that they would at last, without any more delay, unanimously set themselves to practice those parts of Church discipline which are unquestionably necessary, and part of their work. It is a sad case that good men have settled themselves in the constant neglect of so great a duty for so long a time. The common cry is, “Our people are not ready for it; they will not bear it.” But is not rather that you will not bear the trouble and hatred which it will cause? If you proclaim that our churches are incapable of the order and government of Christ, what are you doing if not giving up the cause to those who withdraw from us, and encouraging men to seek out better societies where that discipline may be had? Preaching and sacraments may be omitted, in some cases, until a better season; and accordingly, so may discipline. Yet it is hard to justify the constant neglect we have practiced for so many years together, unless the work is absolutely impossible. And if it is, because of our incapable materials,27 then it would plainly call us to alter our constitution, so that the matter may be possible. I have spoken plainly of this afterwards, which I hope you will conscientiously consider. For now, if you want to give a comfortable account to the chief Shepherd, and you do not want be found unfaithful in the house of God, I only beg that you do not willfully or negligently delay it, as if it were a needless thing; nor shrink from it because of the trouble to the flesh that attends it; for, just as that is a sad sign of hypocrisy, so the costliest duties are usually the most comfortable to give an account of; and you may be sure that Christ will bear the cost.
Unity of the Body My last request is that all the faithful ministers of Christ would, without any more delay, unite and associate to further each other in the work of the Lord, and to maintain unity and concord in his churches; and that they would not neglect their brotherly meetings to those ends, nor continue to spend them unprofitably, but improve them to their edification, and to the effectual carrying on of the work. Read that excellent letter of Edmund Grindal, Archbishop of Canterbury to Queen Elizabeth, for ministerial meetings and exercises. You will find it in Fuller’s History of the Church of England.
Brothers, I crave your pardon for the infirmities of this address; and earnestly longing for the success of your labors, I will daily beg of God that he would persuade you to those duties which I have here recommended, and would preserve and prosper you in it against all the serpentine subtlety and rage that are now engaged to oppose and hinder you.
15 April 1656 Your unworthy fellow -servant
RICHARD BAXTER